Ohio Republican Party

The Ohio Republican Party is the Ohio state affiliate of the US Republican Party, founded in 1854. The party was founded as a classical liberal party, supporting "free soil, free labor, free men", and prominent Republicans such as Salmon P. Chase and Mark Hanna hailed from the state. Hanna led the conservative faction of the Republican Party against Theodore Roosevelt's progressive faction, turning into a socially-conservative and economically-liberal party as the national party slowly changed its views. Ohio was a battleground for the Republicans and the Ohio Democratic Party, which fought over control of the state legislature for years. The Republican Party in Ohio was known to be one of the more centrist and moderate affiliates of the Republican Party, with Governor John Kasich and Senator Rob Portman affiliating themselves with the center-right (Kasich supported the expansion of Medicaid, while Portman supported marriage equality). In 2017, the party held 1/2 US Senate seats, 12/16 US House of Representatives seats, 24/33 State Senate seats, and 66/99 State House seats.